Update: King of the Hill Strategy

Fellow Pilots,
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War Robots University first published King of the Hill strategy back on March 23rd, when the new mode was rolled into the random queue along with Domination and Beacon Rush.  Team Death Match, the mode without territory control, was a stand alone queue and could be easily avoided!  As a side note, "Free For All" is a mode without territory control OR teamwork, and is also avoided whenever possible by the players who enjoy a more cerebral challenge.  Because KOTH is again in random without the long waits that plagued it as the stand alone, we thought we'd revisit our recommendations.

KOTH is simple - you must win the skirmishes at each individual beacon to get more "capture points" and win the battle.  Our tactics are simple too.  First, make a decision about whether you want to be the pilot in the circle brawling it out for control of the illuminated beacon.  If the answer to the first question is no, we suggest moving to the next skirmish to capture, intercept the enemy, or both.

HOWEVER, it's worth thinking more than one move ahead.  In KOTH, you see two beacons are lit.  There's the active one, and the one that will be next has a thin plume.  Especially on the biggest maps, it gives you an advantage if you know which beacon will follow the plume (not visually indicated in the game).

This is also pretty uncomplicated.  After center, the beacons simply alternate sides.  On Dreadnought, for example, it's the beacons across the lateral axis (CHARLIE first, followed by DELTA and BRAVO).  Which side is first is random, but you can immediately tell by locating the smoke plume once center is illuminated at the opening of the battle.  After DELTA and BRAVO, it's ECHO and ALPHA.  My handy illustration shows a partisan war over center, with the red and blue as easier wins for their respective teams.

This is where your tactical advantage comes in.  In the sequence below, we've had the fight at CHARLIE, and almost everyone moved to DELTA next.  Knowing that the next three beacons were all on the other side of the ship, I ran all the way up the left side of the battlefield in an excrutiatingly slow Lancelot.  This felt like it took a week, but it was worth it.  Note the whole red team on the opposite side.  If they saw me, they didn't care.  They should have!

Reader Geoff made an excellent point in the comments below, so I've edited the post to add it here: be cognisant of how many team members are present on a captured beacon.  More teammates = faster point collection.  At a hotly contested beacon, or when you are behind on the bar, you probably want to score the points as quickly as possible.  But at an uncontested beacon or with the clock as your friend (you are ahead with time running out), step out of the circle to make the points accrue more slowly.  Make your way to the next beacon or intercept position.  This could negatively affect your ranking, as you concede capture points to your teammates, but getting the win is the ultimate goal.

Because the plume is at ECHO and the capture meter blank, we know the beacon behind me, BRAVO, was yet to be captured.  I left it alone knowing it was much easier to reach for my team than the enemy.  Adding to the difficulty, a covered Ancilot is still the toughest kill in the game.

Because the enemy had to swarm ECHO to bring me down, my team had a very easy time with the next 90 seconds, and built a strong lead.  This allowed me to walk another slow-as-molasses robot to the beginning of the next cycle.  CHARLIE is lit and I'm headed to DELTA.  In this rotation, the sequence is reversed.  I'm still on the third beacon - BRAVO, across the ship, is next.  The whole enemy team is committed.

Once my beacon is active, it's too late for red to make a serious attempt at contesting this territory.

Here's an example video on Springfield.  I play poorly, but the team gets it done and you can see how to make decisions about where to go. Enjoy!

In conclusion, you can only be the King of the Hill if you understand when to break off from the group and move to where the fight will be, instead of where it is at the moment.  This may require sacrificing your individual score for the win.

Have a great weekend,
Dr. Yat and the crew at the U


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